Thursday, April 24, 2008

It would seem that lately I've been so busy trying to catch up on all my swaps so much so that I haven't even had time to post them. I'm not sure at all when that happened but it must be a good thing.

With only one more partner left to swap with after these two pages I feel a sense of relief that this wonderful swap is finally coming to a close. Unbelievably this swap started back in October with a new partner every 2 weeks. I know I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I signed up but I really feel that this experience has opened my eyes to some really great possibilities in my art. It was actually through this swap that the big-eyed bird was born This partner had expressed a rather fond rememberance of a bee instance from her childhood and loved bees for it. Weeelllll, who am I to not do a bee page for her? As soon as I saw that this particular idea popped into my head. The execution of said picture from my head proved a little more difficult than I had imagined it to be but after everything was said and done I am more than pleased with the results.

The opening that the bee is going into is actually cut out and you can see his little head poking through the opening on the back side.

See?

Of course these bees are truly getting their "buzz" on...

My next partner stated that she liked the birds I do and loved colors...hehe, another lightbulb lit up over my head and this page was born. The birds are actually cut out and the little wings fold up and the backsides are painted just like the front for a truly 3-D effect. Hehe, the worm.

I was a little worried that he might come across as way too cartoon-y but I think he's great.

I've been finding that when I use a scrapbook type paper for the background it's much easier for me to do my illustartion on a seperate piece of cardstock, cut out the figure and then glue it on.

I do wonder if I'm making more work for myself than necessary but I can't seem to help it. It's been working for me and I'm almost afraid to change.

2 comments:

kaleesi
said...

Wow, the bee page is great Babs!!! I can't believe the details - the tree bark looks so real and those flowers are so pretty! And I love that you made it so we see the outside and inside of the picture - this is great!!!

And the early bird catches the worm is totally incredible too =as usual! Love the colors!!!!

The tree bark looks real because it is, haha, I used a photo of a tree and painted what I needed to on it but thanks for thinking I could do it myself. Katxena actually gave me the idea for the bee looking into the tree when she commented on another bee page I had done. She planted that seed and so when it came time to do her page...here it is!